The Rough. Real. Remote. fieldnotes part 2

Hi! This is Stefan Gimpl writing from Greenland. Did you see our ice-cap adventure? I’m still laughing when I think about how cold it was out there in the camp – but that’s the thing with Greenland, you freeze and you love it. We’re having a blast – traveling with Arne is so much fun. (Thanks, man for the warm socks and extra first layers).

We’re on day three of the trip and the weather report has been stuck on perfect – but with 300 days of Sunshine in these parts – I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Yesterday, we flew in a Dash 7 from Kangerlussuaq to Sisimiut.

Sisimiut
Sisimiut is the biggest city in Destination Arctic Circle with 5,500 people who live in colourful houses wrapped around the port. There are 22 kilometers of roads in the city and almost1,200 dogs. What’s so cool about Sisimiut is how it is both a modern Greenlandic city, and also the basecamp for adventures like Arctic diving, river angling, heliskiing and snowmobiling.

Arne’s friend Mia Høegh Chemnitz met up with us when we arrived. She grew up in Kangerlussuaq and, as you can see in the clip, she has been driving dogs her whole life.

The dogsled race
We were lucky because the day we arrived was the National Dog Sled Championships (Avannaata Qimussersua – which means “the Dog Sled Race of the North” and pronounced Ava-na-ta Kri-moo-sar-su-a). And Mia took us to the big lake right outside town to watch the teams cross the finish line after racing 45 kilometers of backcountry trails.

Greenlandic sled dogs are the only dogs allowed North of the Arctic Circle, and no other dogs are allowed here either, in order to preserve the breed. Sled dogs are half wolf and are not considered pets – they are a precocious bunch! Each dog clearly has its own personality and it’s the drivers’ job to keep them in line.

Adventure dogsledding
However, we weren’t racing dogs, and instead Arne had set up a backcountry overnight dogsled adventure. So we geared up in polar bear pants (which make you look like Donald Duck) and seal skin jackets which we borrowed in town.

As it turned out we were traveling with one of the best dog sled drivers in Greenland, Marius Olsen. Marius, is the strong silent type, he is 70 years old and has been driving dogs his whole life. He is a real explorer who has pioneered many routes in this part of Greenland, and he has even crossed the ice cap with his dogs.

Seriously, this guy knows his stuff, and watching him get harnesses and traces ready, set up the sled, and hook in the dogs was amazing.

In the early afternoon light, we literally left from Marius’ backyard, and within minutes we were in the middle of the mountains. We spent the day on the sled, gliding down valleys and climbing steep slopes, feeling very small in Greenland’s giant nature.

Sleeping in a backcountry hut
Arne apparently knows everybody in Greenland, and in typical fashion he had organized a private hut for us to stay in right on the edge of a frozen fiord. The backcountry has huts along the main trails, and people use them both in summer and winter.

Our hut was a great little shelter and we pulled up just as the sun was setting behind the mountains. Check out some of the photos in the Episode Photos to see what it looked like.

Marius took out a big bag of dried fish, and I started to munch on it, but stopped when I saw that it was what he was feeding the hungry dogs! Instead, we cooked lamb in the hut – so tasty after a long day on the sleds.

Peering outside of the hut, we saw the dancing northern lights again! I spent a couple hours with my camera, while Arne and the dog sled drivers chatted in the tent. It made me laugh to see how disinterested they were with the light show in the sky – I guess that is what happens if you grow up seeing them every day of your life.

I grabbed a top bunk and the dog sled drivers slept on the floor. When I woke up sweating in my sleeping bag, I realized why. Hot air rises – and it must have been +40 on the top bunk, making the crisp air more welcome the next morning when we geared up and headed back to Sisimiut.